“This is a government and a party that has been consistently tough on lobbying,” Boris Johnson boasted in Parliament yesterday in response to an attack from Keir Starmer over the return of “Tory sleaze”. As proof of this toughness, the prime minister cited the register of lobbyists introduced in 2015 under David Cameron’s government.
So what did MPs of all parties say at the time about Cameron’s register?
“Chronically bad”, “glaringly inadequate”, “deliberately evasive”, “disingenuous”, “an exercise in box ticking” and “a dog’s breakfast”. The way the government had steam-rollered the inadequate legislation through was “shoddy” and “contemptuous of the public”, Parliament heard.
